


Twelve hours

by Milkteach



Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto)-centric, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 09:45:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16083551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milkteach/pseuds/Milkteach
Summary: Tomorrow, Uchiha Sasuke will be executed.





	Twelve hours

Haruno Sakura walks along Konoha's interrogation halls. In her hands she carries a basin of water, fresh rolls of bandages, an onigiri, and a washcloth. Her foot steps echo in it's gray stone walls seemingly endless with its steel iron doors thick enough to contain each dark secret within. The very air seems to carry a sense of of hopelessness, of blood spilled.  
She has been here many times. Mostly to provide first aid. Other times to revive a body on the throes of death. But today is not about mending bones and tallying daily body counts.

Today she came to say goodbye.

"Haruno-san, we're here."  
Sakura startles at the sound. She has forgotten two Anbus has flanked her side the second she entered the hall. She nods in response.

 _"Cell 16."_  
Sakura says absent-mindedly. She vaguely remembers what she did this morning. Was it toast that she ate for breakfast ? Did she make her usual rounds at the hospital? She feels her damp hair across her nape but barely recalls taking a bath. All she knows is that she woke up today feeling as if her bones weigh like granite and her ribcage one bottomless pit.

Duty is what carries her here before this very iron door. For now, it is her only saving grace.

 

Therefore she must not break . At least, not yet  


The anbu gave the final instructions before unlocking the door. "The key stays with us. Standard protocol, you're already aware. Funny, she thinks. All the Chakra seals surrounding this place and you're worried about losing a key.  
She enters the room as the door is locked again. The gears clicking reverberating around signaling her mission has begun .... .

"Hello, Sasuke-kun.. "

He sits against the wall. His entire body wrapped in Chakra laden chains. Sakura trembles at the sight of him like this, eyes tightly bound by seals.

Not yet, she wills herself. 

She approaches him in slow measured steps before kneeling in front of him. Up close, she finally sees what the darkness inside the room hid. A cut lip. Bruises littered his entire face. Rope burns across his neck. Rotting wounds, the stench seeping through her nostrils.

"Sakura... "

She shushes him like a mother calming a child to sleep.

  
_" Let me take care of you."_  
He nods once.

Soon she began. Dirt was cleansed. Wounds were cauterized. Bandages were changed. All done by sure hands and an expertise burned into muscle memory. She sets his eyes for last.

"You can open them now, she tells him"

Sasuke looks at her, black and purple, clear eyed, and soft. A smirk slowly plays across his features

" _You're late."_ He taps her on the forehead /p>

She breaks. Oh how she breaks.

She puts her arms around him, the fight inside her all gone. Sasuke leans his cheek against her forehead as she hides her face into his neck. Sakura knows it's a futile attempt to hide her tears. So she holds nothing back. The pain that claws and rips through her since she Tsunade broke the news. Anger courses in her too. For her village, for condemning him to this bitter end For Kakashi, who left  them for good this time 6 feet beneath the ground. For Naruto, and his unflinching belief in the world so fickle in its morality . And for this boy and his endless array of bad choices. 

Sasuke angles his body to bring her closer as she sobs herself breathless. Equal parts angry and sad. And grateful.

It was quiet for while. Neither of them bothered to fill the painful silence with words of comfort.Sakura stands up to retrieve the onigiri ,now in its cold lonely state. "You must be hungry, Sasuke-kun. Here, I got your favorite ". Sasuke looks at her gratefully. He tastes her gift to humor her rather than for his own appetite. She asks him then if he regrets anything. He wishes he can give her a simple yes as an answer. In truth, Sasuke's soul is an empty one, easily filled with malice, lies, this girl's love. Since his family's death, his soul was no longer his own,but he'll take this last 12 hours to bare what little he has left. Though he may never get to see Naruto don his Hokage robes and Sakura level more mountains, Sasuke still  answers. "I don't regret having their blood on my hands . For all their crimes against my family, it will never be enough. Leaving though, there is not a day that has passed when I hadn't wished I stayed" . Sakura cries once more.

 

He kisses her before she succumbs to slumber. Once, twice. She smiles a sad one before kissing him back. His one last good memory. As Sakura's breaths even Sasuke whispers into the night, "Make good ones with her, Deadlast" . 

In that numbing space between sleep and reality, she hears Sasuke's voice still so incredibly close.

_" Sakura it's time."_

  
She jolts. The sudden burst of morning light assaulting her eyes. Denial and Panic washing over her in great big crest of waves. Cold seeps into her muscles rendering her unmoving.

 _"No. "_ She clutches Sasuke's shirt tightly.  


_"Let go, Sakura"_

_"No."_

She's hearing everything and nothing all at once. The sound of the cell door being unlocked. Morino Ibiki's voice announcing the death call. Naruto's Sakura-Chan! There is a commotion. Of limbs being pried. A fist slamming to a gut.She thinks she hears someone wailing. Who? Who is the one making that sound so bone deep in grief? She sees her hands are empty clutching nothing but a torn cloth.

  
Sasuke-kun!  
That voice, aching and desperate.  
Hers.

  
The room is spinning and she's losing ground. They're taking him away somewhere she cannot follow. Suddenly, Tsunade is there clutching Sakura's shoulders. She has never seen her prized student like this. She recalls her words from yesterday, when she asked to be by Sasuke's side.  
" _If Konoha cannot forgive him, then I will. Again and Again. As long as he needs it."_  
Tsunade cannot find it her heart to deny her, a daughter in more than one way.

At this moment, she wishes she has the power to heal Sakura's heart. Unfortunately, it's the very Village she sworn to protect that pushes her to break it. _May I rot in hell_ , Tsunade curses herself. She calls Naruto to take her place. Rightfully so. Sakura deserves to take comfort in someone who shares her grief, someone who loves Sasuke too. She watches Naruto, still in his hospital gown, limp towards them. Gritting his teeth as tears and snot fall in his face, he picks Sakura up from Tsunade's embrace.

He whispers something too faint to hear. Sakura suddenly looks at Naruto. Life coloring her eyes. She hugs him firmly, her dear dear friend. She removes her metal hitai ate. Once, she may have fought tooth and nail to tie its weight upon her head. Now she's choosing to be free. "Keep it for me please" , she asks Naruto.  
"Believe it, Sakura -Chan until you and the Teme get back." He grins at her full of faith.  
Sakura bows before her master in contrition for a crime that she will soon commit.  
She wraps a piece of Sasuke's cloth around her knuckle, closes her fist and punches the wall open. Soon the guards will come. So she runs. Runs to where her heart is leading her.

Tsunade cannot help but think," Freedom suits you well" .

 

" Go, you damn brat"

**Author's Note:**

> All characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto.


End file.
